Will there be any early adopting? Like if I have an RPU coming in late October...I’d love to use 40PP (to try to use) on a transatlantic flight to Amsterdam in November. Sounds like I can’t get the timing right!

Nope. PlusPoints aren't even a 'thing' until December 4, 2019.

-RM

Originally Posted by Lori_Q https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/imag...s/viewpost.gif
This is a big benefit in my case, even if it costs the equivalent of two GPUs on some trips.

it shouldn't. If I'm doing the math correctly, upgrading an S/T/L/K segment will cost 80 points (the value of two GPUs, which will become 40 points each) rather than 40 points to upgrade a W+ fare.

I was responding to your comment about "skip the waitlist":
That's going to cost more than 80 points.

I think you are too optimistic. Yesterday I looked at cash upgrade of a EWR-SFO dreamliner flight in November from economy fare. United.com offered two prices, $199 and $906, respectively. They were both labeled upgrade to business, but it turns out that when I chose $199 it was actually UG to PP, which is fine for the 6 hour flight. Based on this, my guess is that the upgrade to PP will be 20 +Pts (because this is comparable to the non-Transcon upgrade from Y cabin to F), so the Y to J upgrade will be >20 +Pts. Whether this will be 30 or 40 we will have to see.

Since this system has been announced publicly I think it is now OK to mention something I learned from an interview a while ago when UA wanted to test it with some 1K/GS members. I don't think I should reveal the details but based on the scenarios discussed at that time, my guess is that (1) the +Pts required for Skip-tw will not be unreasonable when offered, namely some high number guesses here appear to be too pessimistic. (2) If UA forecast the flight to have a good chance of sold out or near sold out (high J demands) so that they will get high J fares, namely when P (or Z or D) not available, UA may not offer Skip-tw. Remember Skip-tw is offered 30 days+ in advance only.

So my speculation is that either the Skip-tw will be offered at reasonable +Pts price that is compatible to lower bracket business fares (if you figure the value of the +Pts as most people do), or it will not be offered. There will be very few high +Pts offers flights that are predicted to have high J demands. Of course these are my educated guesses, and I could be totally wrong since that interview was done a few months ago.

UA Insider This is my scenario now and want to see how it would play out using plus points

LAS-SFO-NRT-SIN SIN-HND (stopover) NRT-EWR-CHS

NRT-SIN and SIN-HND are on NH and don't matter for this exercise

SFO-NRT and NRT-EWR are on UA metal booked in PP and upgraded with GPU

LAS-SFO and EWR-CHS are in B fare due to the long hauls booking in PP

When I applied GPU, I had to call and ask to remove the GPU from those legs because 1K insdtant up for Y/B/M fares upgrades into PN, but the GPU would upgrade into PZ

If I book this in the future, and apply plus points will the system be smart enough to either not apply plus points to a Y/B/M instant upgrade fare or not charge me the domestic upgrade price for an upgrade that comes from Y/B/M instant upgrade

Basically the computer right now isn't smart enough to know that a Y/B/M upgrade is a higher priority than a RPU or GPU and if you don't call and have it removed you can lose out on upgrades as it won't upgrade you if PN >0

This has been asked and answered I believe. You will choose which segments you want to upgrade when using PlusPoints. Remember, the domestic portion will count as 20 PlusPoints used if it clears and the long-haul does not. The fact that you're in Y/B/M means nothing to the system. So, choose just the SFO-NRT segment and hope that PN opens on LAS-SFO. Otherwise, if it doesn't, you'll be pretty high on the list at the gate. Or, only book flights where the domestic portion can be confirmed in PN.

The new system will prevent us from having to call the 1K line so much in these situations as the app and website will be more self-serve in terms of upgrades.

-RM

Oh, yes I heartily agree with you. What are we guessing -- 120 points? 160+? I suppose we will learn in time. :)

I tend to agree. The website already confirms that StW requires a W+ fare, and I would be surprised if the median price is more than 80 points on first rollout.

Certainly there won't be any change off the top. The amount of discussion on applying upgrades to specific segments means you might be able to apply it only to the overwater segments yourself on the website, instead of having to call. I would be shocked if the computer sorts out the YBM-up for you.

I bolden the part that is the problem

If the short haul clear it will be due to Y/B/M instant up as PN >= PZ, so in theory it will always clear into PN bucket
So, if you are a 1K.GS and on a YBM fare you should never get charged points as that actually hurts your chance of getting an upgrade
I certainly don’t want points subtracted for an upgrade I had a higher priority of getting while using ZERO points.

I agree with you, was just hoping on a clarification of the “MIGHT” in your statement

I mean, if they are going thru the process of making plus points and all the website changes. They should be able to program in the 1K/GS on as Y/B/M CPU eligible flight never gets charged for an upgrade on those segments

They won't do that. In fact, they're much more likely to make the fares stop delegating to B in the first place than they are to go to great lengths to keep people from using them unnecessarily.

On the other hand, I fully expect that it will be possible to choose which flights you'd like to upgrade by using the online tool, based upon every example that they've given so far. If not, it will definitely be possible to do it by calling, just like you can do today with GPUs.

Rather OT, but...

PE delegation is a really interesting pickle that I'm not quite sure how the US carriers are going to deal with in the long run. Given that the PE market proposition is basically a domestic F seat ("I don't want air travel to be miserable & I actually understand money can solve this problem, but flatbeds are a little pricey") it seems like a really, really raw deal to take your hypothetical WAS-SFO-AKL customer and plop them in a miserable Economy seat for 6 hours on the domestic sector. Certainly as a non-status pax that would be a complete no-go for me (although I guess personally I would want J on the AKL sector anyway), and it's only palatable as a 1K hunting for PN space.

Obviously, few other carriers have delegated PE to domestic Business (and AA and DL are also going to Y domestically) but the US is a fairly unique market in that regard, where we have a long enough stage length for it actually to matter (unlike delegating CPH-FRA to Y on a PE fare, which, honestly who cares). The closest market is probably Australia, where VA delegates to full Y, but QF will delegate to Business (e.g. PER-SYD-SFO in QF PE books in lie-flat Business on PER-SYD).

Of course, unlike UA at the moment, QF actually charges real money for PE.

There is no problem. You just don't select the domestic portion for upgrade when applying PlusPoints, as I clearly pointed out in my reply to you. That means ZERO points are being taken out for that flight if it upgrades. It's absolutely no different than you do today with GPUs. If you apply a GPU to a "B" domestic segment then you are limiting yourself to PZ. If you don't apply it you allow yourself to upgrade when PN is open. PlusPoints isn't changing this at all. And as I said above, PlusPoints is making it easier for the user to select which segments they want to apply PlusPoints to.

So if you waitlist just SFO-NRT and LAS-SFO clears because PN opens you are still not charged any PlusPoints. Of course, if you waitlisted the domestic portion along with SFO-NRT then the 20 points do apply. There's nothing for United to fix here as it's no different than how GPUs work today.

-RM

Are there still no update as to what is going to happen to 2020 reservations that are waitlisted, if the GPU goes not clear the overwater segment will we loose the whole thing (or 40 points) ??

For those that have reservations made BEFORE this was announced, will this impact us and will we be screwed for 20 points if the domestic segment clears?? Or will we be grandfathered in here and the 40 pts refunded (if domestic segment clears but no overseas one)